full moon in gemini

The peak of the Full Moon in Sidereal Gemini will occur around 6:12am on December 25th, 2015. This puts the full moon window from December 23rd through 27th.

The recent New Moon began the lunar cycle in Scorpio, reconnecting us to our fears and insecurities again as a means to evolve and transform them. And one of the effects of facing our insecurities and fears is realizing that permanent happiness cannot be found in the experiences of the outer world. There will always be ebbs and flows of our emotional waters from happy to fearful to joyful to sad, and the movement of life goes on. We can’t anchor our happiness to any particular person or object, because eventually it will be lost. We can and should enjoy the world, enjoy meaningful relationships, enjoy pleasure and seek to create the greatest happiness we can in the world, but we must also recognize the deeper nature of life as well. For as long as we have illusions about what life is, we will continue to ride the emotional roller coaster of joys and sorrows AS the mistaken truth or reality.

That Scorpio energy is a jumping off point to re-examine our relationship to the ups and downs of life where we learn to stabilize our emotional state through a steady, calm and grounded mind. We learn to reach deep into our nature beyond this world to find our anchor of peace. And as we recognize “where we are” and the “nature of life as it is”, we are often motivated to seek a deeper meaning and purpose for our existence beyond just the pursuit of worldly happiness.

That search for deeper meaning and purpose is what steps us psychologically into the realm of Sagittarius. On December 16th, just 5 days after the New Moon in Scorpio, the Sun stepped our collective sense of Power and Soul connection into Sagittarius. Perhaps you have notice that the last 10 days or so has felt a little more hopeful and optimistic despite the recent global fears and challenges. It doesn’t “wash away” what has happened, but it connected us to deeper possibilities, deeper meaning, and hope and optimism to find the path out of darkness.

With the Sun here, we have all been invited to reflect on our own relationship to higher truth, higher purpose and the meaning of existence that has been the studies of spirituality and religion for thousands of year and longer. Do understand this is a universal quest and questioning. It isn’t about a specific religion or spiritual belief system, although you may feel connected to and guided by one. But even for those who aren’t drawn to organized religious or eastern philosophy, their “religion” is formed by their own sense of purpose and truth. From a technical sense, even being an Atheist and believing “God doesn’t exist. We should just be nice to people” is a “religion” in the sense that it is a guiding set of beliefs for the meaning of life.

However you are inspired, however you find meaning and purpose, however you connect to a deeper hope, these are the things that we are invited to connect to here. For many reading this, you likely are in some ways connected to a spiritual path, and that may be the source of renewal and deepening. It is common in some way that our inspirations initially come from others as spiritual teachings, teachers and practitioners. (Sagittarius is also associated with Teachers and higher teachings.)

And for some, especially when first learning something new, when something “sounds good”, we might just cling to it as Truth. Hopefully it is. But sometimes that “clinging to” become Dogma. Even if the principle is sound and helpful, perhaps we become too rigid about it. Or perhaps we embrace a philosophy that isn’t really helpful but can’t see that yet. Or, perhaps we embrace a beautiful philosophy that is filled with the deepest Spiritual truths, but it only stays at the level of “ideas” and never sinks into direct experience through practicing it.

As the Full Moon begins to form in Gemini, it offers the counterbalance position to these potential challenges in forming our deeper belief systems and awakening deeper Truth from teachings and philosophies. Gemini is ruled by Mercury which rules our capacity for speech and communication. Mercury is fast and quick and curious about seeing many perspectives and having many experiences. As an air Sign, Gemini deepens Mercury’s curious, playful and creative nature. This quickness also reveals that Gemini energy is often not very attached to things. It can hop from one idea or experience to another and just explored and experiences the perspectives.

This Gemini energy reminds us that we must Test our principles and teachings. We must be willing to take the principle, the idea, the teaching, the philosophy and be unattached to it and put it into practice. And through the experiences of the practice, we will discover for our self if the teaching really is worth anything. Does “treating others with kindness” really benefit our self and others? We will only know if we become curious enough to “do an experiment” and see the outcome.

Through this willingness to test the beliefs and teachings we encounter without attachment or expectation, we are able to throw away what doesn’t work or what seems to have less positive impact, and keep the true Gold. As we learn to evolve Mercury through Gemini’s curious energy, Mercury becomes a deeper tool of mental discrimination. We learn, through our own experience, what is valuable and what is not. And we become centered in an embodied experience of our philosophies and spiritual practices, rather than just having “ideas about how things are”.

And as we explore through curiosity, and embody that experience, we become more calm, more centered and more genuinely sure that our teachings are working to improve our lives and the lives of those around us. And then Mercury’s capacity to communicate and speak arises to be able to clearly articulate these Truth from a place of wisdom and experience.

This is the balance point. So, are you putting your own ideals, principles and cherished beliefs into practice? Are you being the type of person that you hope others would aspire to become as well? Are you holding others to a higher standard that you allow yourself to slide on? And if so, what is the result of living and action from these principles? What can you observe in your own life or the lives of others that shows “it is valuable”?

We impact our own life and others by testing our beliefs to see if they really provide the benefits, the growth and the outcomes we expect. And if they do not, then we should also be willing to let them go and refine our understanding of life, others and the deeper meaning of existence.

I know for myself on the Spiritual Path, my understanding of various teachings has evolved and refined itself through practice and experience. There are popular teachings that I assumed were true, and later discovered they didn’t seem to benefit me, or discovered they were helpful at a certain stage of development, but ceased to benefit me once I stepped into a deeper understanding. So they changed. Or I threw them out.

This is what most any major “Wisdom Tradition” would teach. I know it is True of Tantra Yoga. The higher teachings are offered as the deepest Truths as discovered by those who have evolved to their fullest Spiritual Potential. We are invited to assume they are worth pursuing, but we are not required to believe it is True until we have a direct experience of that Truth. This is the difference between a “scholar” and a “practitioner”. The Scholar understands and can explain the philosophy, but an experienced practitioner knows by direct experience that it is True. It is of course possible to be both Scholar and Practitioner, but the layer of experience is what really deepens faith and clarity of the teachings.

In other transits, we see that Mars moved into Libra on December 23rd. This will help to connect our actions and strength with greater awareness of others. Mars always has the potential to create some agitation, anger or violence, but it is considered a “friendly” placement, so it’s general expression here should be one of calming some of the agitation we have seen recently.

Venus will also move into Scorpio just a couple of hours before the peak of the Gemini Full Moon. Here, our experience of happiness is moved into a more emotionally fluctuating space. It is also a fairly friendly position for Venus. It may bring some ups and downs with regard to emotional realms, but it will also connect us to our deeper desires. Look for opportunities to better connect to previously hidden desires and see if perhaps some greater happiness and fulfillment might be found in exploring them. This may be your hopes and dreams in any area of life. And Scorpio is also often associated with our sexuality (as an often hidden force), so you may find yourself feeling a little more connected to that level of desire as well.

This will also create an exchange of energy between Mars and Venus, which can lead to increased passion related to the pursuit of pleasure and happiness.

On December 26th, Mercury as Speech and communication is leaving Sagittarius, carrying with in a renewed sense of hope and optimism, and entering Capricorn. Capricorn brings the experience of Inner Structure where we learn to establish emotional boundaries and develop responsibility and ambition to embrace commitment in the world. It is oriented towards protection of self and others from perceived challenges and problems, and finding practical solutions to resolve them. This energy should be supportive of continuing the conversation about how best to protect our country from terrorism.

Mercury feels friendly in this environment, and hopefully this will support creating new understanding, open dialog and new policy around the fears and insecurities which have recently been brought into the collective experience. But I do see that Mars and Saturn are both aspecting Mercury in this position, which shows the communication in general is likely to be motivated by fear and anxiety (from Saturn) along with agitation and argument (from Mars). Be mindful around your own communications during this time as well.

How will you engage this Full Moon energy? What beliefs, teachings and inspired philosophies have been awakening for you? How has your understanding of life and the meaning of your own existence been shifted or challenged during these recent events? And what beliefs might you be blindly following that you would benefit by testing or just putting into action?

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The above is a general Vedic Astrology Forecast. It discusses the shifts that are happening at the level of the Collective experience, as well as how you can use that Collective energy for your own growth and evolution.

For a detailed reading of how the Planetary cycles will impact you personally, you should schedule a private Vedic Astrology Reading.